UK losing belief that hard work brings better life, and fewer millennials now think work always comes first, survey indicates

In the great “live to work or work to live” debate, Britons have traditionally been seen to fall into the first group. But research appears to turn that reputation on its head.

According to a study of 24 countries, Britons are less likely than people from elsewhere to place importance on work. Increasingly, they also no longer believe that hard work brings a better life.

Nearly one-fifth of British people in the study said that work was not important in their life, the highest proportion among the 24 countries, which included France, Sweden, the US, Nigeria, Japan and China.

Britons were also among the least likely to say that work should always come first over leisure time, according to the research by the Policy Institute at King’s College London.

People in the UK ranked low for believing that hard work would bring a better life in the long run. Just 39% of people held this opinion, leading to a ranking of 12th out of 18 countries and a decline since a peak in the early 2000s. This is notably below the US, where 55% of people hold this view.

The study also reveals generational differences. While most generations’ opinions on whether work should always come first have remained stable, millennials, born in the early 1980s to mid-1990s, have become much less likely to agree with this view: in 2009, 41% felt this way; by 2022, this had fallen to 14%.

read more: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/sep/07/britons-view-work-less-important-other-nationalities-study